Fishing reels of this kind are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,307. In this arrangement the free-running of the spool is achieved by disengaging a spindle, which carries the spool, from a drag brake through a clutch. This is complicated in construction and accordingly expensive to manufacture, as well as difficult to service. In particular, it is a drawback that such existing available well-tried fishing reel constructions fail to provide a compact fishing reel with an over-run brake and an easily operated spool release mechanism.
A similar fishing reel construction is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,077. This fishing reel is likewise provided with two brakes. In this arrangement the brake, which offers an opposing braking force to the line when a bite is obtained and a fish pulls on the line, is provided in the spool. On the other hand, the further brake, which is intended to stop over-running of the spool on release and thereby to prevent unwanted unwinding of the line from the spool, is in the rear end of the reel. Such an arrangement has the substantial drawback that all the means for achieving the free-running must be provided in the housing of the fishing reel. Bound up with this are similar drawbacks to those already mentioned above.